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Shirts Across America is a non-profit organization dedicated to moving families out of FEMA trailers one family at a time in the Gulf Coast Region.

In January 2007, several high school students started the Hope Floats T-shirt campaign. Over 500 shirts were sold around Seattle and Washington state high schools. Since the need in Mississippi and New Orleans is ongoing, the students started a website, ShirtsAcrossAmerica.Org, to sell the shirts online.

Over the last year, Shirts Across America has started programs at six different high schools in the Seattle area, hosted two benefit concerts, and raised over $12,000.

They recently sent a delegation of 40 high school and adult leaders to Gulfport, Mississippi to rebuild a family's home. Every dollar we raise goes directly towards families still recovering on the Gulf Coast.

Please learn more at www.ShirtsAcrossAmerica.org.

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Helping those people who my still need help.

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Students Extending Assistance to Students, Inc. (SEAS) was founded by a group of inspired young individuals whose lives were changed after a service-learning trip to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast region during the summer of 2006. The mission of SEAS is to alert students nationwide about the ongoing plight of young people facing a myriad of adversities throughout the United States of America, and to inspire them to take action and provide aid to their disadvantaged peers. In order to ensure the effectiveness of the organization, SEAS is led by passionate students as well as experienced and well-qualified adults.
Currently, SEAS is focusing its efforts on providing aid and support to those students whose lives were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Although the storm occurred more than two years ago, the aftermath of Katrina continues to weigh heavily on daily life in the region. SEAS seeks to ensure that the victims of the Gulf Coast are not neglected. During the past two years, our members have established a network of community leaders and organizations in Louisiana and Mississippi. Through ongoing direct communication with them, SEAS strives to respond promptly to their most pressing needs.

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This past summer, nearly 40 students, faculty, staff, alumnae and friends of Regina High School traveled by bus to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. They spent a week helping at Our Lady of the Gulf Parish, in Mississippi.
The parish is located right on the Gulf of Mexico. Church property includes a church, parish center, temporary rectory, elementary school and a girls’ high school. A boy’s high school is located on the adjoining property. Each of the buildings took a direct hit from Katrina
Very little has been rebuilt in the area so far. Insurance and FEMA are delaying progress and in many cases, preventing it.
The group was assigned several tasks at the parish elementary school including painting stairs, delivering 10,000 pounds of textbooks, assembling new desks, unloading a semi of cafeteria tables, installing ceiling tile and painting a huge mural of Noah’s ark. The school finally reopened for this school year, merging three parish elementary schools, two of which were washed away by Katrina.
Other tasks included cleaning up parish grounds and doing some landscaping, painting a house, pouring concrete pilings for a home, clearing out a home which had housed 25 people during and after the hurricane, and helping a family find a way to begin to sort out the remains of the hurricane.
The Regina team was challenged by heat, poor accommodations, insects, simple meals, and hard work. These were all overshadowed by the joy of sharing time and talents with those in need.

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I hosted a fashion show at Bloomingdale’s on Saturday, March 17th at 1:00 p.m. The fashion show featured high school students, as well as professional models and was free to the public. There was a Worldvision Child Sponsorship booth that allowed people to sponsor impoverished children in many different countries, but the main focus of the event was rebuilding New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

A raffle was held for a three night Caribbean cruise on either the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line or on Carnival Cruise Lines. There were also custom raffle baskets that I created with the help of my committee and local businesses.

Proceeds from the raffle benefit The Historic St. James A.M.E. Church in New Orleans and its much needed affordable housing program. The church owned 40 houses. 15 had been restored, but funds and volunteers were needed to restore additional housing.

The St. James A.M.E. Church was severely damaged during Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent flooding. The 162 year old church has been a center of the spiritual, civic and cultural activity in its New Orleans neighborhood since the 1840’s. The Church is on the National Historic Register.

Members of the church drove by bus from New Orleans to Boca Raton, Florida, for the event. The fashion show raised more than $7,000.00 to rebuild housing and rebuild lives.

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My church sponsored a Hurricane Katrina Relief Site fund that was to get people to deliver clothing, food, toys etc.. to our church and we would deliver it to the people.

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The Opp-Guide is a community service guide designed to educate and inspire middle and high schoolers. Written by teens for teens, the teens "rate" various community service opportunities in the community. We have devised an objective assessment in which the teens provide their honest opinions about their volunteer experience. Modeled after the "Zagat Guide" which critiques restaurants, the Guide is a resource for teens who may not know of a volunteer opportunity or may not know at which non-for-profit is "fun" to volunteer. The Guide's objective is to enable teens and tweens to enjoy volunteering and giving back to the community as opposed to merely performing community service "required" by their high schools for graduation.

Thus, the Opp-Guide is trying to do the following: to make the community service requirement not seem like an obligation but rather become a fun and fulfilling as as well as engaging and enlightening experience. This way young people will continue to volunteer as adults, helping and giving back to the community.

The Guide has been selling for $10.00, the proceeds of which have been donated to charity. The initial money raised (which was approximately $5,000.00) was sent to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Wilma.

We are now in the process of going "on-line" with the Opp-Guide so we can service even more young people (www.opp-guide.com). We are in the process of securing grant monies to sustain the Guide. To that end, we have secured a small grant of $1,000.00 seed grant from Youth Service America to assist in defraying some of those costs.

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